BCAN launches Young Investigator Awards

BETHESDA, MD USA (Press Release) - January 9, 2013 - The Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) has announced the availability of three research awards of $100,000 each, over a two-year period. Applications will be accepted from January 9 to March 6, 2013.

BCAN’s Young Investigator Awards seek to fund those researchers who may be working in basic, translational, clinical, epidemiologic, bioengineering or any other scientific or research field, but are also working in a research environment capable of supporting transformational bladder cancer research.

The program was seeded through a $250,000 challenge grant received from the Gerald C. McNamara and Renée K. Petrofes Charitable Fund encouraging outstanding young researchers to focus on bladder cancer research. BCAN responded by raising more than $500,000 in additional private funds to further develop the program. In its inaugural year, BCAN will distribute three awards with two of them named after prominent supporters of bladder cancer research whose families have been directly affected by the disease: the Raymond and Maria Floyd Family Young Investigator Award and the James Family Young Investigator Award.

BCAN President and Co-Founder, Diane Zipursky Quale, remarked on the impact a program of this magnitude can have on bladder cancer research. “We are excited about being able to offer awards that are large enough to have significant impact on new research being undertaken throughout the country,” she said. “Research in bladder cancer is woefully underfunded, so we are incredibly grateful to our supporters for contributing private dollars to help young, innovative investigators stay in the field of bladder cancer research.”

Young Investigator Award recipients will be notified of their selection in late spring of 2013.